Monday, March 28, 2016

Garver recently gifted $250,000 toward the construction of a new civil
engineering facility at the University of Arkansas.

The Civil Engineering Research and Education Center, or CEREC, will be a
25,000-square-foot facility housing structural engineering research and
teaching facilities located at the Engineering Research Center in the Arkansas
Technology Park. The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees has approved the
issuance of up to $5 million in bonds to match private donations for the
project, effectively valuing Garver’s gift at $500,000. The College of
Engineering has a goal of raising a total of $5 million in private funds to
complete the project.

Kevin Hall, civil engineering department head, explained that the new
facility will be a resource for both students and the community.

“We’ve estimated that over the next 25 years, CEREC will serve over 9,000
undergraduate students and 1,750 graduate students,” said Hall. “In addition to
that, we expect this facility to generate over $18 million of
infrastructure-related research over the next 25 years, providing solutions for
local, state and national infrastructure problems.”

Hall describes CEREC as the ultimate “living laboratory” for civil
engineering undergraduate students. This aspect of the project will begin even
before the building is finished, because civil engineering students will study
and participate in the CEREC design and construction process. Once the
facilities are complete, CEREC will provide vital opportunities for hands-on
experience through laboratory exercises and research activities.

CEREC will also provide Arkansas-based industry, agency and higher-education
institutions with a structural engineering laboratory needed to provide
research-based solutions for infrastructure needs, as well as the educated
workforce to implement those solutions. “Arkansas currently lacks a full-scale,
comprehensive structural engineering laboratory,” said Hall. “CEREC will
function as a truly statewide resource.”

“We are so excited to partner with Garver in kicking off this important
project,” said John English, dean of the College of Engineering. “The creation
of safe and robust buildings and structures benefits everyone, and we expect
CEREC to open up new opportunities in structural engineering across the state,
and to raise the bar when it comes to finding infrastructure solutions. This
gift is a big step toward our fundraising goals for this project.”

“For nearly a century, Garver has relied on the skills, character and drive
of its staff,” said Dan Williams, president and chief executive officer of Garver.
“To invest in an institution like the University of Arkansas College of
Engineering is to invest in the quality of our future staff and ultimately, the
quality of our nation’s infrastructure.”

“This Civil Engineering Research and Education Center will provide students
with the hands-on experience they’ll need in order to better understand the
fundamentals of structural engineering,” said Bert Parker, Garver chief administrative
officer.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

More than 50 engineering students from the University of Missouri recently visited the U.S. 69 Missouri River Bridge project to make the connection between what they’ve learned in the classroom to how that knowledge is applied in the real world.

For this project, Garver designed the roadway, the bridge superstructure including the 420-foot navigation span, river piers, and integrated subconsultants into the design team to meet the design demands on a fast-paced timeline. Because the project bridges two states, there was an unusually high number of permits and approvals to obtain—two states, two levee districts, and the Army Corps of Engineers. Students spoke to Garver engineers who worked on the design about some of the issues this project faced.

“It’s great for students to understand how engineering works from the classroom perspective, but coming out to the job site to see the various aspects of how the bridge is constructed is an invaluable experience,” said Kansas City Bridge Team Leader Blake Blakemore.

The project goal was to address an ailing runway lighting system, which is a necessity during nighttime flight operations. Careful design consideration of the unique terrain along the runway as well as the rock embankments at each runway end was a must to provide both a safe construction environment as well as a safe and long-lasting finished product. By replacing aging equipment, correcting the lighting layout to the most current FAA standards, designing robust shallow conduit installations, and installing break-away threshold light structures, the safety of nighttime operations has been greatly increased. With a coordinated effort between the airport and Garver, taking innovative approaches to address the complexities of the runway environment and electrical vault building, an aging electrical system has been updated and will offer years of reliable operation.